Jacob's Ladder
by chef diamond heart
Summary: Deep in the forests of western Washington two adversaries meet - only one will walk away. The tale of a Protector...and transitions. What would you sacrifice for the one you love?


All things Twilight are the sole property of the divine Ms. Meyers. This fan fic is purely for entertainment, no copyright infringement is intended. I just couldn't help but wonder: what if...?

In **93 Million Miles Pt.1** we saw the comedy of errors that ensued when Bella and Jake attempted to carry their relationship to the next natural stage. **Pt.2** showed how certain events prompted Bella to ake that momentous next step.

(IK, IK! I kinda confused everyone by adding on to 93MM, sorry! Read it and all will become clear!)

Here we see how Jacob reached the same point of decision... Set three years after Chapter 19 of Moonshadow.

**Jacob's Ladder**

I woke to the sense that something was missing…the place beside me in the bed was empty.

Bella stood at the window, silhouetted against the sheer curtains. In the wan moonlight her naked skin was as white and smooth as marble.

Rising from the bed, I moved to stand behind her, running my hands over her silky shoulders. "Bells, you're freezing! Come back to bed and let me warm you up." I whispered invitingly into the curve of her neck.

"Jake," she sighed and turned to me, pressing her chilly cheek against my chest. Her little hands ran deliciously up over my sternum, to circle my throat, the fingernails digging into my flesh, growing tighter, pressing on my windpipe.

"Not funny, Bella! What-" I choked out, my breath was being cut off. I tried vainly to pull her hands away, why wasn't my strength enough? My feet scrabbled uselessly on the floor as I struggled to heave my body away from her attack.

Her face turned up to mine, but she wasn't my Bella anymore. Her crimson eyes blazed with a manic light as her lips drew back in a hideous parody of her sweet smile, the venom stranding sickeningly from her sharp, gleaming teeth.

Thrashing frantically, I desperately tried to escape her grip; the tiny hands that had always caressed me so lovingly were unrelenting, dragging me mercilessly toward her hungry mouth-

_H-O-O-O-N-K!_ The blatting of the truck horn delivered me from clutch of the nightmare.

Gasping, I leaned back against the headrest, drenched in the sour sweat of terror. Shudders racked my body as my oxygen-starved lungs worked to recover from the horror of the dream. Gradually my heart slowed and seemed to belong to me again.

Glancing at my watch, I saw that I could only have been asleep a few minutes. I crossed my arms over the steering wheel and rested my forehead on them; I didn't have to be a shrink or a shaman to interpret _that_ dream. The sooner this business was over the better.

Rummaging around in the glove box, I retrieved a package of raisins. I wasn't at all hungry – I had hunted and eaten a couple of black-tail deer earlier in the afternoon to be fortified for tonight's mission – but I needed something to _do_. Needed something to reground myself in reality; something to help take the bitter taste from my mouth.

Bella teased me sometimes about my love of raisins; she didn't understand what raisins meant to the kids on the rez. Sure, her folks had always worked hard for their money, she was a good worker herself, but she didn't know what it meant to grow up really poor.

Even before Dad's health went down, and before Mom's…problems got so bad, things were pretty tight most of the time. Life is like that for most reservation Indians. We were all in that boat so I didn't even know I was 'underprivileged' till I was older.

We got a good bit of government surplus stuff, a lot of it pretty useless. There'd be some head shaking over the junk they sent, then it all would get put to use somehow. Nobody ever complained about the food, though, even if we got pretty tired of processed cheese and the like.

Raisins were a real treat, they were doled out as if they were as precious as gold nuggets or something. It was like candy for us kids; we didn't get a whole lot of sweets – not with the parents struggling to get nourishing food for us.

I could never explain to an outsider exactly how surprised and delighted I was when I found out you could just go into a store and _buy raisins_. And they came in small, neat boxes instead of 25 pound cases. Anyway, I always liked to keep a box handy. Right now the familiar chewy sweetness helped dispel the last remnants of the dream. Mostly.

The sun was going down; it would be behind the mountain in a matter of minutes. The waiting was almost over.

I stretched as much as the confines of my truck allowed, then turned off my phone and put it and my watch in the glove box. I had parked several miles from my destination, but I didn't want any untoward beeps or rings, here in silence of the forest.

After undressing, I found myself folding my clothes with uncharacteristic neatness. Ironic. Like I wanted everything I left behind to be all tidy, in case that was all anyone could find later? Bells scolded me sometimes for just piling my discarded clothing on the bedroom chair, wouldn't she be-.

I wasn't going to go there.

A little waft of a breeze tickled my bare skin as I stood beside the truck, eyes closed, absorbing the smells and sounds of the forest as evening drew in. I patted the little pouch tied to my ankle. A deep breath, then I reached deep inside myself to where the fire burned. I pulled it out and let in run down my spine and along my arms and legs, reveling in the familiar magic that made me strong and swift. And deadly.

My plans had been made for some time; I had scouted the area well in both my forms. It was time to stop a killer.

Local law enforcement entities were investigating a series of mysterious, and grotesque, deaths in the area. The victims appeared random in the extreme and the crimes scenes were scattered over western Washington. The perp evidently favored remote cabins and hunting camps, plenty of those in the region.

They all seemed completely haphazard, the only common element being a lack of clues.

Game Management got called in when it was determined to be the work of some sort of wild animal. I had walked the scenes with other officers, nodding gravely and muttering terse agreements at this theory.

After all, what else could it be?

Even if I hadn't seen the broken, bloodless bodies with the soft tissue of the pulse points ravaged and torn, the smell – burning my nose and searing my throat with the sickening sweet stench of decay – would have told me.

Not exactly something I could share with my superiors. And I couldn't ask for help from my own either.

Sam was my friend and my Alpha, a formidable fighter and leader, and he had very strong opinions on where the duty of the pack lay. Which was at home. He hadn't been very pleased with me when I decided to seek a livelihood away from the tribe. Just one of the many things we didn't see eye to eye on, for all that I loved him like the big brother I never had.

Without even asking, I knew he'd have a line of bullshit featuring words like 'jurisdiction' and 'delineations of responsibility' and 'primary purpose'. All of which meant I was on my own.

The thing was, I simply wasn't capable of letting such an obscenity have a pass. It didn't matter that I had no connection to the victims by blood or friendship – I was a Protector, born to do a certain task. The fact that I had not wanted or welcomed that duty was immaterial. It was laid on me to do this. End of discussion.

A steady trot to begin, then my stride lengthened to a ground-eating run; I wanted to time my arrival for when my quarry would be emerging from its lair for the dinner hour.

In the course of walking territory, I had spyed, and smelled, a spot that could have been purpose-made for a leech: the entrance to an old silver mine. Remote and obscure, the only barrier was a rickety, rusted gate that wouldn't have slowed down a determined granny.

It was a pretty sure bet that it was just one of the creatures; they didn't go much for company as a rule. I had no doubts about my abilities as a fighter; I had killed before, but always as part of the pack. My people have a saying: "Bare is the back without a brother", the truth of that was really sinking in as I ran.

The sun was almost set when I arrived, just one last shaft of light streaked across the tunnel entrance. Lucky for me, the day had been bright. I knew, of course, that the bloodsuckers could go out in the day, but they had compelling reasons for avoiding the sun. Anything helped.

Silently, I crept to a strategic point over the mouth of the passage. Most humanoid creatures never look up unless something gets their attention. I hoped the advantage would be enough.

Sounds too subtle for the ears of a human to detect alerted me that the adversary was negotiating the underground shaft. I crept back a few paces with not even the scrape of a toenail to give away my presence.

My hackles rose as the abomination emerged from its lair, the age-old enmity burning bitterly in my mouth. By force of will I stilled the growl that vibrated deep in my chest. My target didn't seem in any special hurry to get to business, just standing in the rough clearing outside the shaft opening as if to take in the evening, much as I had done earlier. Go figure.

I watched and waited, gathering the power of my limbs beneath me, tensing to make a mighty spring. A ray of the dying sun caught the light-colored hair of the bloodsucker, momentarily turning it a reddish gold.

My heart stopped: Victoria! How could this be?

The creature moved from the stray sunbeam and the illusion was gone.

Just wishful thinking on my part; I was still a little bitter that I had not been in on the kill of the fiend who had threatened my Bella.

I retightened my focus; the monster was not large, but I knew from experience that size and mass had no relation to force and agility with these beings. It might have been female, once. To me it was a crystalline shimmer of competing angles and prisms, held together in the shape of a person, a magnet for my despite and loathing.

The burning cold of its stench seared the receptors in my wolf nose; the element of putrefaction even stronger than was common. I sensed that this leech was just ending the newborn stage: the scent was strongest then as the last vestiges of humanity rotted away.

Or it could just be messy feeding habits.

Instinctively, my mind cast about for the touch of a brother – nothing. It was just me. Or rather, just the two of us.

With a roar, I lunged at the horror. It turned with blinding speed, immediately ready to engage, even as it was it was knocked backwards from the force of my assault. A high banshee's shriek mingled in the air with snarl that was ripping from my throat.

My fangs found purchase in the flesh of the atrocity; a werewolf's teeth are about the only thing that can penetrate the stone-like skin. Shaking my head vigorously, I tore out a mouthful of its substance, flinging it instantly away. The taste both sickened me and inflamed my lust to destroy. Vaguely, I heard a thud as if a rock were striking the ground.

Our bodies sprang apart as we eyed one another; each sizing up the opponent. As I circled, my mind clicked along on different levels: the tiny fraction that was still human giving a sub-vocal commentary of feint and turn; my pack mind shockingly empty; the Protector in me dominating all.

Every particle of awareness was zeroed in so tightly that my being hummed with the tension; an instinct as ancient as the mountain behind me channeled my attention.

A dart, a vicious kick, a dodge. My enemy ran past me and up a tree, launching itself into a flip that landed it on the opposite side of the clearing, to crouch in a fighting stance. Again I hurled myself at the foe; my massive jaws crunched satisfyingly on a bone.

The bones of a vampire are like nothing else on earth, the closest thing might be the titanium of the artificial limbs they give to amputees these days. Strong, light, resilient, I exerted all the force possible to inflict the greatest amount of damage.

Grunting with the effort, the unnatural beast threw me off; I landed with a _thunk_, a howl torn from me as a shock-wave of pain swept through my body. I jumped up, instantly on guard; my adversary lurched to its feet, somewhat lopsided now. A creaking, a crackle, and it stood upright, more or less, but it was plainly wary as we rejoined in battle.

Whirling and leaping, snapping and growling, the engagement hurtled us around the clearing and into the woods beyond. Screams and howls wove through the sounds of crashing and banging as we hit against tree trunks, the reports of breaking branches as our momentum propelled us through the forest adding a sort of punctuation.

Time lost its meaning, the moon rising above the tree tops gave me the first awareness of the passing of hours.

My adversary would never tire, so long as there remained enough of its physical being to continue the fight. Not so for a wolf,_ I_ was mortal, after all. I could feel the toll being taken as the action dragged on. However, the bloodsucker itself was looking the worse for wear and tear, I thought with savage glee. Gashes and tears; off balance from where my teeth had ripped; part of a hand gone, the stump just a clumsy club. And better still, confusion and rage making for poor judgment.

Enough fun and games.

I began a reluctant retreat, allowing a look of exhaustion to creep into my eyes. I suffered the parasite to land a leaping kick to my foreleg and screamed with the pain as a bone snapped; I watched my foe back off with a self congratulatory smirk.

_Don't get too cocky, bloodsucker_, I thought to myself, as I braced my paw on the ground. Ruthlessly, I forced the two ends of the bone back together, a guttural yip escaping in spite of my efforts to contain it.

Barring my teeth as if in hopeless defiance, I limped backward. Already I could feel the healing of the break, the bones knitting in fast forward mode. I continued to drag the injured limb as if struggling, while I began a stealthy circling to get my prey into position.

In our striving we had come some miles from the old mine entrance; my ears could just detect the rushing of the river which was still hidden by the thick tree cover. My gambit was working. Patiently, I maneuvered the freak into the strategic place, then cowered as if giving up.

Suspiciously, my enemy advanced; I slunk down lower, permitting a pitiful whimper to drift from my muzzle. Closer. Closer.

Baying like a hound from hell, I leaped, using all my remaining strength to propel me at the object of my hatred. The unexpected onslaught had the intended effect of surprise: my quarry had no wits to retaliate as the momentum carried us over the edge of the tree-concealed cliff.

The bloodsucker's arms and legs flailed in shock, finding no purchase in thin air. I, on the other hand, gripped my quarry with claws and teeth, sinking my fangs deeply into its neck. The impact of landing gave me the force needed to sever the spine and tear the head from the loathsome creature.

Blows rained down on me and on the rocky shore of the riverside indiscriminately, like a toddler having a tantrum. Deranged grunts and moans sounded from the discarded head, with no throat left to speak of vocalizations were extremely limited.

Briskly, I went about the task of relieving the foul git of its limbs, using the weight of my body to anchor the flopping, headless trunk. Then I dragged it all into a neat pile for burning. Phasing to human form, I extracted the lighter from the pouch tied to my ankle. I held the tab down long enough for the plastic barrel to become hot to the touch, then tossed the whole thing on the twitching mound of remains.

A quiet whoosh and the mass was enveloped in flames; vampire venom is a fine accelerant, as I knew from previous experience.

I stood for a moment, gloating in grim satisfaction, then resumed my wolf form to retrace the route of our battle. I scoured the terrain for bits and pieces, returning time and again to the fire.

At last it was done. I circled my tired body three times, then flopped belly-down on the rocks near the vampfire, a weary sigh gusting out of me. I fought the sleep of exhaustion long enough to take a mental inventory of my physical state. Tugging sensations marked the mending of gashes and scrapes, there was a pins-and-needles tingling as my broken bones continued to draw together. So far, so good.

The bite I had sustained was greater cause for anxiety. I had torn the barely clotted wound open with my teeth to allow for free blood flow that would hopefully carry the poison away. That was all I could do about it.

I allowed myself to drift into healing sleep, curling in on myself and tucking my nose under my tail.

………

I woke to the sense that something was missing… the place beside me in the bed was empty.

Bella stood at the window, silhouetted against the sheer curtains. My eyes roamed the outline of her slender body, my hands tingling slightly in anticipation of touching what I saw.

Rising from the bed, I moved to stand behind her. I ran a hand over the smooth, cool skin of her shoulder, sliding the strap of her tank top out of my way and cupping her breast.

"Come back to bed," I whispered into the curve of her neck, feeling the heat tighten and gather in my groin.

"Jake," she murmured with a smile in her voice. She leaned back against me and a tiny giggle escaped her lips as she felt my swelling hard-on grind into her back. Her little hand pressed against mine and I circled my thumb around her tightening nipple. Her other hand reached up behind her to pull my head down and her lips sought mine.

Mouths meeting, then tongues, then a soft hum from my love's throat. Bella turned in my arms to face me and a slim thigh slipped between mine as, with surprising strength, she clasped me to her and pressed the full length of her body against me. So much passion contained in one small woman.

I gripped her ass and lifted her, kissing her all the while as I walked the few steps backward to the bed. I fell onto the mattress, carrying her with me. It crossed my mind, as it had many times before, that for all the difference in our heights things seemed to even up just fine when we were horizontal.

Her legs straddled me and she rose on her knees just enough to fling off the tank top, before rubbing her bare breasts against my chest, her erect nibs lightly skimming over my skin. Up she crawled, drawing a path of fire with her tongue between my pecs, up my throat to my mouth, tracing a circle around my lips.

Bella looked intently into my face as her fingers combed back my hair. Even in the darkness I could see her brown eyes glow with desire and I knew that she wanted me in the same fierce way that I hungered for her. I captured her mouth with mine and heard her breath become short and ragged.

Beneath her, I shrugged my body down until her breasts filled my face. The sound of her gasping "Oh!", as I sucked in a nipple made my erection leap, a current of fire surging in time to my heartbeat.

My hand swirled up her inner thigh, slipping under the leg of her cotton sleep shorts. I sought her cleft, just brushing over the close clipped hairs, and felt my girl's hips wriggle as she strove for more contact.

I knew what she liked, just much how to tease, when to fulfill.

I dipped my fingers into her slit, building the rhythm from a delicate touch that made her shiver, then adding pressure to make her moan and shake. Till at last, with my fingers inside her and my thumb on her clit, she cried out and I felt her silky wetness flow over my hand as she climaxed.

Still panting, my love rolled onto her back and shimmied out of the shorts, then she pulled me to hover over her on hands and knees.

Bella's hand groped delicately between my legs, cupping and squeezing my balls, and then grasping my cock firmly; her little fingers just met around it. Her touch was sure as she stroked me, her thumb rubbing tiny circles over the v-spot. My groan of pleasure mingled in the air with her little chuckle of triumph at my response. Then her legs crossed lightly over my back as she guided my aching rod to the opening of her sweet pussy.

"I love you, Jacob", the words left her lips in a whimper as she welcomed me into her body. My instinct was to drive in hard and fast, wanting to claim every bit of her and to race to my release. Instead, I rocked in slowly, prolonging the heart squeezing anticipation until I was completely sheathed in her soft, snug warmth. My idea of paradise.

Our bodies moved together, gaining momentum, as we climbed the summit. I could feel Bella's hand between us, stroking my dick where we were joined, then caressing her little knot. Her soft cries urged me on as she abandoned herself to the ecstasy. There was nothing more exciting in the world than to feel, and hear, my girl's pleasure rising.

With a wail, her pelvis arched against me and the rhythmic pulses of her sex sent jolts of electricity along my cock. The molten fire in my thighs and belly gathered and strengthened, igniting an explosion that spasmed out of me-

- and spurts of my hot spunk geysered on to the bare flesh of my stomach. I lay panting on the cold, rocky bank of the nameless river in the thin gray light of pre-dawn.

I must have phased to human as the dream took shape in my unconscious. It was…disturbing, and it had been happening rather a lot lately. I just missed my girl too much.

Sitting up, I began to take stock of myself and the day. A little way off, only faint wisps of smoke and steam rose from the smelly, oily mass that had been the bloodsucker. A good night's work, that. Gritting my teeth, I scattered the still warm rocks along the bank.

A chilly wash in the river cleared the sleep from my brain. I forced myself to be thorough and gave myself a good examination for damage.

The more minor injuries were all but invisible now, a day or two and you'd never know.

The bite was still angry and puffy-red, with an alarming bluish color around the edges of the wound. I opened it again and let the frigid river water cleanse it. I'd have to take today off, and maybe tomorrow, for a trip home to let the elders have a go at it. It needed to be all healed before I saw Bella again.

Funny, I cringed more at the thought of her reaction to last night's encounter than at the prospect of what Sam, or Dad, would have to say. I gulped guiltily at that idea. I knew I could anticipate a royal ass chewing from the guys, but after the shouting was over we'd have a satisfying discussion of tactics and a blow-by-blow recap.

With Bells it was different. I had promised long ago that I wouldn't let her down or leave her, but I had pretty much gone back on that promise last night. The letter I had left 'to be read in the event of' would hardly have consoled her if things had…ended badly.

I stood in the rain, watching the river rush past me till my stomach started to growl.

Breakfast. And not raw critter either; pancakes, or bacon and eggs, or biscuits and gravy, maybe. Maybe all of them, and coffee, about a gallon of coffee.

A last look around and I took off running, back to civilization.

………

"You trying to scrub the pattern off that plate?" the lightly teasing words broke through my reverie. I started and realized I had been circling a crust of toast round and round in the last smear of eggs as I dreamily looked out the window of the truck stop diner.

"Just lost in thought I guess," I laughed apologetically to the waitress, who crooked an eyebrow as if to say 'tell me about it'. She was young and cute, in tight jeans, with a thick braid of yellow hair hanging down her back; she smiled encouragingly, her eyes holding mine a beat too long.

"I was planning out how to ask my girl friend to marry me." I said smoothly and the smile lost a good bit of its warmth. I got up, tossed a few bills on the table and nodded a friendly good bye as I headed to the parking lot.

Mentally, I checked over the list of people I would need to talk to for all this to work out: Dad; Rachel and Paul; Charlie, of course and Sam. Sam was going to be difficult…

.........

**AN for the Highly Compulsive:** _The Moonshadow Continuum_

It is respectfully suggest that the fics be read in order of 'publication':

**Moonshadow**

**You Belong to Me** (Leah's story)

**93 Million Miles** (now a two-part fic: Pt.1 Perihelion & Pt.2 Absolution)

**Jacob's Ladder**

Coming soon: **The Fractured Angel** (EPOV of certain events in Moonshadow)


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